2008 Preliminary TAKS Results

Austin students continued to keep pace with the more rigorous requirements of the 2008 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests, showing improvement at most grade levels, according to results released today by the Texas Education Agency.

"The hard work of Austin students and the commitment by Austin educators paid off. That's evident from the improvements our students achieved in two-thirds of the TAKS reporting categories. In some cases, gains are dramatic and worth noting. In others, more work needs to be done, and we'll do it. That's our promise," Superintendent Pat Forgone said.

"Out of 189 comparisons to last year in English TAKS on Reading, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Writing for seven student groups, we saw improvements in two-thirds of the comparisons - with English Language Learners showing some of the most terrific improvements, upwards of 20 percentage points in a year's time in a few cases. When you add in the places where we stayed the same or went up, we saw positive results in eight out of every 10 comparisons to AISD last year."

"That's terrific news for our schools. We still have a lot of work to do - we need to boost our performance in Science, in secondary Mathematics, and reinvigorate performance in Writing and Reading - but we must acknowledge all the hard work done by our students, teachers, and parents to continue making progress against the standards."

Board of Trustees President Mark Williams especially commended the strong community interest shown in TAKS results for the District's most challenged campuses - Johnston High School, Pearce Middle School, and Reagan High School.

"It has been gratifying to see the support of parents and citizens for these struggling campuses. Literally, the Austin community put its arms around these students and said, 'We care about your success.'"

With Preliminary TAKS results now available, Dr. Forgione made the following observations:

• At Johnston High School, threatened with closure by TEA due to four successive years of an Academically Unacceptable rating, students showed Ram Pride in making vast improvements over last year's passing rates; but District and campus officials, students and parents, don't know if all of the improvements are enough to reach the required standards. Even as these preliminary TAKS scores are released, a subset of these data are only one component of the State accountability rating system. Individual campus ratings are calculated by the State, and are scheduled to be released by TEA on August 1. Any speculation about any campus's 2008 Accountability Rating at this time is premature. Accordingly, no one with the Austin School District is in a position to comment on the future of Johnston High School at this time. The District continues to have discussions with state officials, who will determine the future of the Johnston campus and its students.
• At Pearce Middle School, rated Academically Unacceptable for the past three years, student performance in eighth grade Social Studies was substantially better than it had been last year (56 percent in 2007 compared to 67 percent in 2008). Seventh graders appear to have been less well prepared in Reading and Mathematics than were their sixth and eighth grade schoolmates this year, with passing rates for all seventh grade students running anywhere from nine to 18 percentage points less than those of the sixth or eighth grade students. Intensive support systems are being planned for the rising eighth graders at Pearce, both to help them individually satisfy the Student Success Initiative requirements next spring and to accelerate the school's overall trajectory of improvement in all subject areas.
• At Reagan High School, Academically Unacceptable for two years, TAKS results are mixed. In tenth grade Science and in ninth grade Mathematics, students struggled the most to meet the state's standards, with only one-fourth to one-third of all who tested actually being able to pass. Results in Social Studies at Reagan were the strongest of all subjects tested by TAKS.
• Of the current twelfth graders, District officials say a total of 519 - 12 percent of the District's active seniors - need to retake one or more portions of TAKS to be able to graduate (without taking into account credit-based eligibility to graduate). Eighty-eight percent have passed all Exit-Level TAKS tests. Statewide, 95 percent of seniors in the April 2007 cohort have succeeded on TAKS and can graduate, according to data released by TEA. When a cohort look is taken, AISD's cumulative figure matches that of the state. Retesting will occur in July. AISD students who pass the required tests in July will receive their diplomas at Summer Graduation in August.

DISTRICTWIDE RESULTS

More than 58,000 students in grades 3-11 took the battery of TAKS tests - Reading/English Language Arts, Writing, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies - in testing periods in March, April, and May.

"More students than ever before are being tested on grade level with either regular TAKS or the accommodated version of the tests. How impressive it is that Austin's students - in every grade - are rising to the challenge by scoring higher scores this year than they did when TAKS was first introduced in 2003," Dr. Forgione said. "Again, we salute Austin teachers and students who responded to the TAKS challenge with commitment and hard work."

For the most part, AISD's results track those of the state. Similar results were seen in, for instance, eighth grade reading, with 93 percent of AISD's students passing, and 95 passing statewide.

Comparative data from school districts similar to AISD in student demographics are not yet available.

Districtwide, out of 189 possible comparisons (63 in Reading, 63 in Mathematics, 14 in Writing, 28 in Science, and 21 in Social Studies) Austin students showed improvements in 125 instances over 2007, or 66 percent of all categories. Declines were experienced in about 21 percent of the comparisons to prior year, and performance was steady in the remaining comparisons. In other words, with more students taking the tests than ever before, about eight out of every 10 comparisons to the District's performance last year were either level or better.

On the 2008 TAKS, Science and Social Studies performance strengthened, while performance in other subject areas either was similar to that seen in the past, or showed improvement.

Over a four-year period, 180 out of 182 possible comparisons in Austin showed greater passing rates now than in 2003 on the tests taken in English, and the majority of improvements (156 out of 180 available, or more than 80 percent) were by 10 percentage points or greater, as summarized in aggregate (for all tests taken, as available to display) below:

* Passing rates for grades three, five, and eight are not yet available, because portions of those data continue to be reviewed for accuracy. Fifth and eighth graders must pass Reading and Math to be promoted to the next grade. Third grade students must pass Reading.

"We support high standards for all students, and these results show just how much high expectations and hard work can achieve," Dr. Forgione said.

Dr. Forgione said that, while results show TAKS progress, they also reveal areas of academic need. "We recognize that we still have a good deal of room for improvement. We won't be satisfied until every student achieves at high levels," he said.

Other key TAKS highlights for Austin students in 2008 are:

READING AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

• The best passing rates were in eighth (93 percent) and third (92 percent) grades; lowest passing rates were at the same grade levels this year as last year, in seventh (78 percent) and ninth (79 percent) grades.
• There would appear to be a possible cohort effect in AISD's results, such that this year's eighth graders - many of whom were seventh graders in AISD last year, demonstrated the greatest improvement in a year's time again in 2008. Last year, seventh graders were observed to have made large improvements in passing rates since 2006. The students experienced an eight-percentage point improvement in passing rates as seventh graders in 2007, and now experienced a nine-percentage point improvement as eighth graders in 2008.
• Both the one-year and five-year improvements in TAKS Reading performance of English language learners in AISD are dramatic - sometimes by as much as three times more students passing the test in five years' time.
• Improvements in passing rates among minority and economically disadvantaged children generally were two to four times greater than those seen among White students, with the exception of performance at Exit level, where all groups improved their passing rates by at least 24 percentage points.

MATHEMATICS

• The best passing rates were in grades four (82 percent), three (81 percent), and five (80 percent) in Austin this year. The weakest passing rates were again in grades nine and 10 this year, at 57 percent and 62 percent, respectively.
• High school English Language Learners (ELLs) and identified special education students appear to struggle the most to pass TAKS Mathematics. Improvements in passing rates among minority student groups and/or economically disadvantaged students generally were 1.5 times greater, or more, since 2003 than the improvements among White students' passing rates in this same time period. Improvements in passing rates in Mathematics were greatest in the eighth and ninth grades, at seven and four percentage points, respectively, tracking well the improvements seen from 2006 to 2007 at the seventh and eighth grade levels. The largest long-term improvements for all students were at eighth (+26), seventh (+24) and Exit (+21) grade levels.

WRITING

• Austin's fourth grade performance in Writing in 2008 was flat compared to last year, at 89 percent passing. It is noteworthy that Spanish TAKS takers' Writing performance (87 percent) was within two percentage points of that shown by the English TAKS takers in AISD this school year. Performance at seventh grade in Writing declined by five percentage points from last year, to 84 percent passing. In spite of the mixed performance trends since last year, overall, the long term trends in Writing performance demonstrated by AISD's students show substantial improvements in passing rates, with minority and economically disadvantaged students improving their passing rates by as much as three times that of White students.

SCIENCE

• Students taking the Exit level TAKS in Science experienced the best passing rate among the four grade levels tested in this subject, at 79 percent. By way of contrast, the lowest passing rates were seen at eighth (63 percent) and tenth (64 percent) grades.'
• 100 percent of the available one-year and five-year improvements in TAKS Science passing rates were positive.
• Science passing rates among students testing in Spanish as fifth graders were among the lowest values seen throughout AISD.

SOCIAL STUDIES

• A consistent pattern of improvements exists in the Austin Districtwide data for Social Studies. Eighth and tenth grade passing rates now match at 85 percent, and Exit level performance remains the best in Social Studies at 93 percent.
• The improvement in passing rates of non-White student groups is often five times greater than that of the White students since last year on TAKS.
• While the passing rates among English language learners remain relatively low in AISD, they are also among the most dramatically improved passing rates of student groups taking Social Studies.